Railway-switch.



No. 718,636. PATEN'IBD JAN. 20,-1-903".

, P. I. KING. I

RAILWAY SWITCH. APPLICATION FILED HAR. 24, 1902.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.'

NO MODEL.

PATEN'AED JAN. zo, 190s.

P. r. KING. RAILWAY SWITCH. A PPLIOATIQN FILED MAR. 24v-i902.

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No MODEL.

/GM @Mac No. 718,636. I PATENTED JAN. 20, 1903.

f P. I. KING. Y

RAILWAY SWITCH.

APPLIOATION FILED un. 24, 1902.

N0 MODEL. 3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

Q lool Q Rms PETERS co. PHO-ranma.. y/AsHlNc'Tcm. n. c.

Unirse STATES ATENT OFFICE.

PIIINEAS F. KING, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

RAlLWAYnSWITCH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 718,636, dated January20, 1903.

Application led March 24, 1902. Serial No. 99,788. (No model.)

To all whom it' may concern:

Be it known that I, PHINEAS F. KING, a citi- Zen of the United States,residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of' Ohio,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway-S witches,of which the following is a full, clear, and complete specification.

The invention relates to automatic railwayswitches, and is particularlyapplicable to street-railways.

The Objects of the invention are to provide a simple, durable, andinexpensive switch construction, one that is positive in its action,self-locking, and easily operated from the car while said car is inmotion.

With these objects in View the invention consists in the constructionand combination of the parts hereinafter described, and pointed outdefinitely in the claims.

In the drawings forming a part of this specification, Figure I is a sideelevation of the forward end of a car, showingpa portion of the trackand switch. Fig. II is a plan View of the front truck of a car and aportion of track and switch. Fig. III is an enlarged plan view of theswitch-operating mechanism with the cap removed. Fig. IIIA is aperspective view of the cover-plate detached. Fig. IV is a longitudinalvertical section on lines IV IV of Fig. III. Fig. V is an enlarged sideelevation of the front end of a street-car, showing one means forthrowing the switch. Fig. VI is a plan view of the mechanism illustratedin Fig. V. Fig. VII is a front View of the operating-lever detached.

Similar characters of reference designate similar parts in the drawingsand specification.

With the ordinary switch which is in general use a vast amount of timeis lost owing to the necessity of stopping the car to throw the switchproperly. Agreat many accidents happen from the overconiidence of themotorman in attempting to throw the switchwith his switch-iron withoutbringing the car to a stop.

With the improved switch the operator is put to no inconvenience in theleast, nor does he have to slacken his speed, as willreadiiy be seenfrom the following description.

Referring to the drawings, o, represents the switch-point, a arock-shaft rigidly attached to the switch-point and depending therefrom,having a suitable bearing a2 for its lower end.l An arm a3 is rigidlyattached to the rockshaft a in a positionat substantially a right angleto the switch-point. This arm a3 eX- tends inwardly or between the railsof the track.

B is a box or casing embedded beneath the track at any desired distancefrom the free end a4 of the switch-point a. Mounted in suitable bearingsin the casing B is a pinion b. Said pinion b is in mesh with agear-wheel b', rigidly attached to a shaft b2, which has its lowerbearing in the bottom of the casing and extends upward and out of thetop of the casing. Rigidly mounted on the upper end of the shaft b2 is aspider-wheel b3, preferably provided with four arms, as shown. Thepinion b is provided with just one-half as many teeth as the gear b andhas a connecting-rod c pivoted thereto. Said connecting-rod extends backthrough an eye in the inner end ofthe arm a3 and is provided with or encircled by two helical springs s and s', one on each side of the arm a3.The inner ends of the springs s and s' bear against the arm a3 and theirouter ends against the adjustingnuts c and c2, respectively. Acover-plate d is placed over the casing B and spider- Wheel b3,sufficient clearance being allowed for the free revolution of thespider-wheel b3, and a space or channel d allowed between the outer edgeof the cover-plate and the tread of the rail. In operation one of thearms of the spider-wheel b3 will at all times be exposed in the channeld', as will be more fully explained presently.

I will now describe the method of operating the switch as illustrated inthe drawings.

A represents the front portion of a streetcar, and the truck thereof.Attached to the cross-bar t of the truck i are two brackets t2 t2.Supported by the brackets t2 t2 and adapted to .slide vertically thereinare pins e, provided With the depending shoes e' e and heli-A calsprings e2 c2. Pivoted to the truck-frame at any convenient points,asff, are the levers j" f2. These levers extend forward over the headsof the pins e c and have their forward terminals under ltwo levers g g',hinged to the under side of and extending transversely t0 the floor ofthe vestibule of the car. '[wo pins h 7L pass through the oor of thevestibule and rest on the levers g and g', respectively. Vhen the deviceis in its normal p0- sition, the points e3 c3 of the shoes e e' areraised clear of the channel d', and the car will pass freely over theswitch without disturbing or shifting the point. If it is desired tothrow the switch on the right side of the car, the operator presses onthe right pin h before reaching the channel d. This, through the mediumof the lever g, leverf, and pin e, forces the point c3 down, so that inits travel through the channel (Z' it will come in contact with theexposed arm of the spider-wheel b3 and impart a one-quarter revolutionto the spiderwheel, and consequently a one-quarter revolution to thegear b', the said gear b' having twice as many teeth as the pinion bwill cause the said pinion b to revolve just one-half way around, andthereby throws the switch, through the connection of the connecting-rodwith the arm 0.3. In whichever position the switch-point is moved thetension of the springs s and s' lock said point in that position and atthe same time permit the flange on the wheels of a car going the otherway to pass between the point and the rail and then throw the point backto its locked position. After the point e3 has acted on the arm of thespider-wheel biE the operator may release the pressure on the pin h, andthe springs e2 will raise the shoe. Should he fail to do so, he iswarned by a counter-pressure caused by the point e3 traveling up theincline d2 of the cover-plate d. If it is desired to shift the switch onthe left side of the car, the operation is the same as above described,except the iniatory part, in which the left pin h is pressed instead ofthe right pin 7L.

Although I have described at length the construction of the operatingmechanism attached to a car as illustrated in the accompanying drawings,I do not wish it understood that I claim this particular mechanism orconfine my invention to its use, as it will readily be seen that thereare a great many ways of operating the switch from the caras, forexample, the spring-pins e, with their depending shoes c e, may beattached directly to the platform of the car and the operation of theswitch will be the same, or the operator may without stopping his carsimply insert a switch-iron in the channel d' and shift theswitch-point. Therefore, as before stated, I claim nothing on theoperating mechanism attached to the car, but confine my invention to theswitch, the construction of which may vary somewhat in detail withoutdeparting from the nature of the invention-as, for example, the ratio ofthe teeth of the spider, gear, and pinion may be different from thatherein described. Should the spider-wheel be made with six arms, thegear should have three times as many teeth as the crank-pinion, whichwould give the desired result-that is,to give the crank-pinion a onehalfrevolution at each operation.

Other minor details of construction within the scope of the inventionare apparent to those skilled in the art.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In an automatic self-locking railwayswitch, the combination of thepivoted switchpoint, an arm projecting inwardly from the pivot of saidswitch-point, a connecting-rod having a spring connection with said arm,a crank-pinion connected with said connectingrod, a gear-wheel in meshwith said crankpinion, a spider-wheel or a series of arms rigidlyattached to the shaft of said gear, the ratio of the number of arms onsaid shaft, the number of teeth in the gear-Wheel, and the number ofteeth in the pinion being such that a predetermined limited movement ofone of the arms will cause a one-half movement of the crank-pinion,substantially as specified.

2. In a self-locking railway-switch the combination of the pivotedswitch-point having an in wardly-projecting arm connected therewith,acrank-pinion, a connecting-rod pivoted at one end to said crank-pinion,the other end extending through an eye in the arm of the switch-point,helical springs on said connecting-rod on both sides of the arm, agearwheel in mesh with the crank-pinion, said gear-wheel rigidly mountedon a perpendicular shaft, a series of arms protruding horizontally fromthe upper terminal of said shaft, the ratio of the number of arms onsaid shaft, the number of teeth in the gear-wheel, and the number ofteeth in the crank-pinion being such that a predetermined limitedmovement of one of the arms will cause a one-half movement of thecrank-pinion, and means located on the car for imparting saidpredetermined movement to the arms, substantially as specified.

3. In a self-locking railway-switch thecombination of the pivotedswitch-point having an inwardly-projecting arm connectedtherewith,acrank-pinion, a connecting-rod pivoted at one end to saidcrank-pinion, the other end extending through an eye in the arm of theswitch-point, helical springs on said connecting-rod on both sides ofthe arm, means for adj nsting the tension of said helical springs, agear-wheel in mesh with the crank-pinion, said gear-wheel, pinion andconnecting-rod being located below, and in a horizontal plane with thetrack, the shaft of the gear-wheel extending perpendicularly above thebed of IOO IIO

the track, a series of horizontally-protruding arms attached to theupper terminal of the shaft, the ratio of the number of arms on saidshaft, the number of teeth in the gear-Wheel, and the number of teeth inthe crank-pinion being such that a predetermined limited movement of oneofthe arms will cause a one-half movement of the crank-pinion, and means1ocated on the ear for imparting said movement tothe arms, substantiallyas specified. 1o

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

PHINEAS F. KING. Witnesses:

L. F. GRISWOLD, WM. H. SPIRE.

